CF Tips from the 40 Year Old Fat Guy

A quick blog to share some tips about Crossfit from the 40yofgw1a.  That sure is a crappy acronym.

Tips for an Injury Free Crossfit Workout:

I may not be the biggest stud at the actual workouts, but I'm a mental giant.  I Rx the thinking....

Burpees suck and I'm terrible at them.  But since it is one of the best all around exercises, I'm sure we will keep doing them.  I've found they are rough on my knees (since I can't jump to my feet immediately).  I've started using these:    

1 for each knee really keeps the scraping down

They are also great for whenever we do deadlifts.  Wear on the calf area and keep the shin scraping down.

Finally, for those of you that still use a band (like me) on the pull-ups but hate wearing long pants.  Wear one of these where you put the band and eliminate the pain.

Next, CF is tough on the hands.  I started buying athletic tape and taping my index fingers (well 1 of them).   the other option will also protect your hands during pull-ups:  hand wraps

You ladies just might be able to have a hard body AND soft hands ;)

Tracking Your Results:

Most people track their CF results religiously.  Many do it in a small notebook and that's cool.  But I hate paper so I have two electronic solutions.

iPhone Apps:  If you have an iPhone, you can dl'd an app called WOD for $1.99.  It is the highest rated of the CF apps.  It has all of the standard workouts pre-programmed.  It has a template for any non-standard workouts.  You enter your data and it logs by date.  I've used it a little and it seems fairly good.  It has an RSS feeder that can pull your gym's specific WOD, but I can't get it to work with the blogspot we use.  I don't use it because it only resides on your phone and you can't access it anywhere else.  But for some, that is good enough.  I will keep it because it has so many different workouts and explanations.

Evernote:  This is my method.  This program is free download for the iPhone, Blackberry or any Android phone.  It also has free software for MACs and PCs.  Finally, you can access it from a web browser.  The cool thing is, once you sign up, you put your login info in each of these and they will stay synched.  I have a notebook specifically for Crossfit.  Typically, I enter the workout ahead of time.  It synchs to my phone so that after I finish at CF, I call open the app, find the workout and enter my score. The changes then synch back and I can review it anywhere.  On my rest days, I enter my weight from that day so I can track those changes too.

My format:

Title: 3-20-10 Workout

Body:

"Cindy"

20 min AMRP

5 pull-ups, 10 sit-ups, 15 squats

Score: 13 rounds

Be aware, there is a paid version for heavy Evernote users, and they will occasionally bug you to upgrade.  But I've never even come close to the free monthly limits.  I also use this program to take and catalog pictures of great wines I encounter.  I keep a few key pieces of info that I can't remember to save my life... like the size of my home's air filters, the model year of my car's, pictures of things my wife might like for a gift, etc.  It is a very cool storage program.

Enjoy!